Recently, an attempt of supplying a large amount of chemical industrial raw materials by using alcohols, in particular, ethanol as the raw material in place of chemical industrial raw materials induced from petroleum as been widely noticed.
A method of producing ethylene from ethanol as the raw material wherein calcium phosphate is used as a catalyst is known but the method shows a low activity and is economically disadvantageous. Also, as a dehydration method of an alcohol, the use of a solid acid catalyst such as zeolite, etc., is known but in the method, aluminum in the zeolite structure is released by the action of water formed by the reaction, which results in lowering the catalyst activity, and the method cannot be industrially used for a long period of time.
A method of producing acetaldehyde from ethanol by using calcium phosphate or calcium phosphate carrying a metal such as Cu, Ni, etc. is known but the activity and the selectivity are low, and the method is economically disadvantageous. Also, as a dehydration method of ethanol, a solid base catalyst such as a carrier-type platinum-group catalyst, MgO, etc., is known but there are problems in the point of the dispersion of the characteristics with impurities and the stability.
As a method of producing diethyl ether from ethanol, a solid acid catalyst such as zeolite, etc., is known but aluminum in the zeolite structure is released by water formed by the reaction, whereby the catalyst activity is lowered and the catalyst cannot be used for a long period of time.
As a method of producing 1,3-butadiene from ethanol, a method of using Al.sub.2 O.sub.3.ZnO (6:4) as a catalyst [S. K. Bhattacharyya and N. O. Ganguly; J. Appl. Chem.; 12, 105(1962))] and a method of using sepiolite adsorbed with a metal (Mn, V, Mo. W. etc.) (Japanese Patent Application Nos. 178281/1980and 157814/1981) are proposed. However, in the former method, there are problems about a method of stably producing the catalyst and the thermal stability of the catalyst itself, and the latter method is the result in a batch test level and thus in the method, there is a problem in the point of a mass production. Accordingly, 1,3-butadiene is generally produced from a fossil fuel containing butenes. As an industrial synthesis method of 1-butanol, an acetaldehyde method, a Reppe method, etc., are known but these methods are complicated and poor in efficiency. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 305238/1993 discloses a method of obtaining gasoline-base hydrocarbons from lower alcohols using a catalyst formed by carrying a metal on a calcium phosphate-base compound.